Website Designs: Our Process

Create website designs is a science and an art.

Producing a design that satisfies the client and the firm takes enough effort.

But, aesthetics aside, the process may be more difficult than the actual product.

There is an inherent dichotomy in nearly every step of the process, begging with pricing.

Website pricing is the first thing prospects ask about.

“What’s this going to cost me?”

And it’s a fair question, yet exceedingly frustrating for firms.

Creating website designs is not like building an engine or a car.

Sure, there are best practices and tools to make the process easier, but this isn’t an assembly line.

In fact, clients should run for the hills if a website design firm can drop a price on them immediately. This is a sign of a prepackaged, cookie-cutter design; fine for recreational blogging, but unacceptable for a professional company or client.

But back to why this frustrates firms.

Firms know that a client, generally, does not know exactly what the client wants.

In the industry, it’s called scope creep.

Yes, to the client, the requirements and requests seem straight forward.

“I want to be able to include a photo above headlines for my content.”

or

“I want to be able to compare the performance of two sales promotions we run from our dealership”

So, the firm drops a quote for those requirements, the client agrees, pays the deposite, and the firm runs off and creates one or more website designs that accomodate this.

The client likes the website designs and approves them, so the development team builds out the requirements.

After the development team finishes, the demo is turned over to the client.

“This is great. How do I add the photo below the headline?”

or

“I love it, but where is the option to compare three promotional deals? And I need to be able to change the date range.”

Here’s where the problem comes in.

The firm can basically do two things:

1. Gently explain to the client that he or she can’t do those things because they weren’t requested, and that if they are required, the firm can give the client another quote for the additional work.
2. Smile politely and run off to make the changes.

The problem with the first scenario is that the client feels he or she is being taken for a ride. Again, this is understandable. They’re used to Word documents and Excel spreadsheets where you can put an image wherever they want and add ranges and variables until their heart is content, so why can’t do it with one of the firms website designs?

Of course, firms know exactly why, but clients do not.

The problem with the second scenario is that it’s not feasible for the firm. If the firm gets in the habit of doing free work, no matter how small, it essentially dooms itself to going out of business.

Ah, but that is only one dichotomy when building website designs.

The other is a matter of function vs personal appeal.

Again, this situation is frustrating for both sides, but when seen from a distance is completely understandable.

The firm is going to create website designs that best fit the stated function from the client. Yes, the design should be easy on the eye, but, primarily, the website exists to serve a function whether that function is to generate leads, sales, page views or chuckles.

On the other hand, the client is paying good money for this, so, naturally, the client will want input, which the firm should welcome. The problem arises because, often times, the client’s input arises from a standpoint of personal preferences.

“Can we add drop downs?”

“Verdana is such a plain font. We want something that pops.”

“How about a drop shadow. I think that would look good.”

Clients don’t know that Verdana is one of the most readable fonts for blocks of web text. Or that drop downs are going to interfere with a visitor clicking the main headline or that a drop shadow on top of a beveled button screams “1994!”

We’ve been there.

Clients think “I’m paying them. Why are they giving me such a hard time over my input.”

Firms think “A client doesn’t tell a mechanic how to put together an engine.”

This is the toughest part about website designs.

Firms shouldn’t take an attitude with clients, who genuinely want to help. At the same time, a firm has a duty to build a product for the client that will best meet the project’s goals.

For example, if a firm tells a client that it’s not a good idea to make the font color yellow on a white background because no one will be able to read it, but the client insists, and, six months later no one has converted on the website, the client isn’t going to remember the discussion about font color – just that the website is not doing what it’s supposed to do.

How are these dichotomies solvable?

With care.

First, unless a client comes to Gunner Technology with a firm, detailed specification of the project in meticulous detail, we generally don’t give them a quote for the overall project. We quote them an hourly rate and give the best hourly estimate we can provide based on our discussions with the client.

Second, we chunk every project as small as possible. This means that, if a client insists on a project rate, we give one for almost every step in the project and spell out what these steps entail.

For example, we may offer a quote and say the deliverable is a static comp of every page and template that the website will use. The quote also covers x number of revision rounds. After that, any revision rounds will be billed to the client at an hourly rate.

Same for implementation.

Then we’ll provide a quote for an SEO audit, Keyword Research, content writing and content strategy.

Then we’ll provide a quote for Social Media consulting.

That way, there are no surprises, or, at least, the surprises are small surprises.

In the later case of function vs preference, we carefully explain our philosophy on website designs and explain each element of our designs.

Now, that’s easier said than done, and firms may lose some clients to other firms who will be ‘yes’ men for clients.

However, in our experience, those clients are generally less satisfied six months down the road.